Movie mistakes

While we're complaining about underage magic being performed, what about at the beginning of the GoF movie where Harry is using his wand to repeatedly light up the area under his blankets whilst studying? I find that one particularly odd, especially as it was made clear in prior movies (not just in the books, this is strictly a movie continuity issue) that underage magic is not allowed, and that Harry will get in trouble for doing any such thing in his aunt and uncle's home (think Dobby and the pudding in CoS)? This would be an issue where the trace would come in handy.

While we're complaining about underage magic being performed, what about at the beginning of the GoF movie where Harry is using his wand to repeatedly light up the area under his blankets whilst studying?

It was PoA, actually, but yes, that one irritates me to no end. It would be one thing if it was just any movie but this is the movie where mere minutes later Harry is worried about being arrested for accidentally blowing up his aunt! And Cuaron chose to open the movie with a notable feat of underage magic! Rather counterproductive, I think.

While we're complaining about underage magic being performed, what about at the beginning of the GoF movie where Harry is using his wand to repeatedly light up the area under his blankets whilst studying? I find that one particularly odd, especially as it was made clear in prior movies (not just in the books, this is strictly a movie continuity issue) that underage magic is not allowed, and that Harry will get in trouble for doing any such thing in his aunt and uncle's home (think Dobby and the pudding in CoS)? This would be an issue where the trace would come in handy.

I always assumed it was a HW assignment and a simple spell like "lumos" would be accepted if it was part of school work.

noticing that in gof and ootf that sirrius appearing in the gryfindor fire place was very different
the goblit of fire - his face was the coal
the order of the pheonix - his face was the flame

Yes, this inconsistancy really annoys me. You'd think they could just keep it the same, but instead they change it for no apparent reason. It could get really confusing for someone who has never read the books before (and it's probably confusing enough) when things like this change.

My main annoyance is when in one movie a spell has a set purpose, and then in another the same spell has a different purpose.

Yes, this inconsistancy really annoys me. You'd think they could just keep it the same, but instead they change it for no apparent reason. It could get really confusing for someone who has never read the books before (and it's probably confusing enough) when things like this change.

I think they changed it because the way they did it in GoF was widely criticized. It was inaccurate from the book, and they fixed that in OotP.

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Originally Posted by LoonyMagic

My main annoyance is when in one movie a spell has a set purpose, and then in another the same spell has a different purpose.

One of my favorite goofs, which was clearly intentional, was to keep Harry and Ron's voices in CoS after they took the polyjuice potion to become Crabbe and Goyle. Talk about underestimating your audience's intelligence!

We have to remember the movies are only based on the books. So the directors can add and change a few things.

Not sure if someone has mentioned this, but I didn't like the fact that Cho was portrayed as being a traitor. It was her friend who told on them about the Room of Requirement, not Cho.

Also remember in Chamber of Secrets, where they're talking about whether Hagrid opened it? In the movie, when Hagrid asks them if they were refering to him when they said "mad and hairy", Ron and Harry say "no", but I noticed that Hermione says something before the no, yet we can only hear her say "no". It seemed to me as if she said "heck no".

Seeing how we should move along rather than actually talk about adaptation problems, we should focus on movie mistakes.

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Originally Posted by CoS Mistakes from IMDB.com

* Continuity: When Harry breaks his right arm playing Quidditch, he takes great care to keep it held up as he rolls from side to side to avoid the bludger, but at one point he puts his weight on it without any apparent discomfort. In the next shot he is holding it across his stomach again.

* Revealing mistakes: When Harry and Hagrid hug (when Hagrid has just returned from Azkaban), the flames in the bowls hanging on the wall behind them burn backward briefly. This occurred because (according to Emma Watson in an interview on the Prisoner of Azkaban DVD) the filmmakers paused this shot. This was because Emma was so embarrassed to hug Daniel in front of everyone, they had to stretch, or replay a portion of the shot to get the right length of footage.

* Revealing mistakes: During the Quidditch match, the wire that attaches the broom to Harry is visible for several seconds.

* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The students are able to carry on conversations and hear instructions while wearing the earmuffs that protect them from the screams of the mandrake roots. We assume the earmuffs to be enchanted to specifically block mandrake screams, but not other sounds. Despite what "it says in the book" there is nothing in the movie to suggest that this could not be the case.

* Continuity: Ron receives the "Howler" from his mother. After his owl, Errol, crashes into the table, you can see that the red envelope is open. As Ron removes it from Errol's mouth. We then see Ron breaking the seal on this envelope so he can read it.

* Continuity: When Harry and Ron's car is caught by the tree, a limb smashes a hole in the rear window but the hole is missing in one shot when the car tips forward while falling out of the tree.

* Incorrectly regarded as goofs: At the beginning of the transfiguration lesson, the writing on the blackboard behind Professor McGonagall is reversed, and this has been reported as a flipped shot. However, further observation reveals that the right-hand board is, for undisclosed wizardy reasons, a mirror image of the left-hand board and so this is not an error.

* Continuity: When Harry and Ron are in the Dark Forest and the spiders begin to attack, Hagrid's dog gets in the car twice.

* Revealing mistakes: When Ron is on all fours beginning to cough up slugs, Harry says, "Let's take him to Hagrid's." Hermione mouths the lines with him.

* Continuity: At all times the Locomotive 'Hogwarts Castle' is played by a Great Western Railway Hall Class Locomotive. However, when Harry and Ron are in the car and look behind them to see the train bearing down on them the front of the engine is quite different, although the numberplate and nameboard are the same.

* Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Harry is reading off the paper that explains the Basilisk, he says "Spiders flee before it", but his mouth is saying something else. What Harry is actually saying is "and the crowing of a rooster can kill it." A scene was filmed, but cut in the theatrical version that shows Harry running into Hagrid, who is carrying a dead rooster and explaining that it's the second one he's found dead. The scene was later added on the second disc of the DVD as part of the deleted scenes section. The full text of what Harry is saying is "Spiders flee before it, and the crowing of a rooster can kill it."

* Continuity: When Harry is chasing after Dobby in his house and they get to the downstairs hallway they both stop running. Harry stops and he has one leg in front of him. In the next shot, the other leg is in front of him instead.

* Revealing mistakes: When the Weasleys' enchanted car has ejected them and Ron and Harry are chasing the car, you can see the hand and silhouette of the driver.

* Revealing mistakes: Near the end of the film, when Harry and Ron find out that Lockhart's a fake, they push him towards the stone washstand in the girls' bathroom. When Lockhart touches the stand, it shakes considerably, proving that it isn't stone.

* Continuity: When Professor Lockhart is knocked backwards by Professor Snape's charm during their duel, his wand can be seen flying through the air. When he lands, however, the wand is back in his hand.

* Crew or equipment visible: Just after Harry and Ron realize the basilisk is getting around by using the pipes, they walk fast down a corridor to warn people. Wires from a camera or a boom mike are visible on the left-hand side of the screen.

* Revealing mistakes: When Crabbe and Goyle pluck the chocolate cupcakes out of mid-air, you can see the shadow of the string on Goyle's face.

* Continuity: When Ron and Harry run into Professor Lockhart's office, after they've just found out that Ginny has been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart can be seen briefly in a mirror beside the door, waiting for his cue.

* Continuity: When Harry and Ron are in the Whomping Willow tree, one of the branches punches a dent in the roof of the car, but when the car drives away the dent is gone.

* Continuity: When Harry goes through the large round door and enters the Chamber of Secrets, he is carrying his wand in his left hand. When he sees Ginny on the ground and runs to her side, he clearly drops his wand from his right hand.

* Crew or equipment visible: The green puppet used to represent Dobby during the shoot is reflected in Harry's glasses.

* Continuity: When Harry and Ron are in the car trying to get away from the spiders, Fang (in the back seat) is alternately sitting down, standing up, leaning forward, and looking out the back window between shots.

* Continuity: When Harry's cart hits the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, Hedwig's cage door very clearly pops open. In the next shot she is shown ruffling her feathers with a very closed cage door.

* Crew or equipment visible: When Snape leans over to pick Draco up after he has been thrown through the air by Harry's spell in the dueling scene, a crew member in blue jeans can be seen kneeling on the far left.

* Revealing mistakes: When the pixies drop Neville on the chandelier, the pointy plastic ears used when the pixies pull him up are still on him after they let go.

* Continuity: Lockhart's cloak goes from flayed out to straight down between shots when he is sprawled between two stone basins at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

* Crew or equipment visible: When the spiders are coming out in great numbers, stage lights are visible.

* Continuity: When Harry and Ron go in to Lockhart's office, Lockhart is not wearing a cloak. But when they arrive in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom Lockhart has a cloak on.

* Factual errors: It is fact that it takes only 6 pounds of pressure to pull your ear off. When the pixies pulled Nevelle by the ears, all of his weight was going down. It was more than 6 pounds, so his ears should have been ripped off.

* Revealing mistakes: When Hedwig puts her beak on the lock at the beginning of the movie, a key is visible in the lock.

* Revealing mistakes: When Ron, the twins, and Harry enter the Weasley home toward the beginning of the movie, there is a pan washing itself in the sink. You can see the edge of the circular cut-out in the pan used to make the brush spin in a circle.

* Revealing mistakes: At several points while Harry is in the Chamber of Secrets, the ceiling of the sound stage can be seen reflected in the great pool of water.

* Continuity: When Harry and Ron are in the car being chased by the spiders, Ron switches gears with Harry's hand over his. The clothing sleeves shown on them in that brief shot are not the clothes they're wearing in that scene, but what they'd worn in the earlier flying car scene at the beginning of the movie.

* Continuity: It takes Gilderoy Lockhart 6 seconds to fall down the entry to the Chamber of Secrets, but it takes Harry and Ron three times as long. In addition, when Harry and Ron land in the bone-covered room, crunching noises are heard from their landing on the bones. When Gilderoy landed in the room ahead of them, the crunching noises are missing (though they may have been too faint to hear over a distance in the tunnel).

* Continuity: When Harry is flipping through his photo album at the very beginning of the movie, he views a picture of himself, Ron, and Hermione that should've been taken during the last school year, however, it's clearly a recent photograph as Ron and Harry both sport longer hair, and Hermione's hair is curlier.

* Miscellaneous: When Harry is entering the Weasley's house, he sees a pair of bewitched knitting needles. The needles are clacking together, but not actually knitting any stitches.

* Continuity: Harry is in the shop near Dragon Alley, and hides in the sarcophagus when the Malfoys enter. His glasses were broken when he enters the sarcophagus, but are intact when he first leaves the sarcophagus. A few seconds later, however, they're broken again.

I have one which may NOT be labeled as a mistake, but I will see it as one:

In SS/PS, Snape hears Harry's heavy breathing under the invisibility cloak. We have learned that his invisibility cloak is impenetrable... this could be argued as not being a mistake, but I think it was.

I have one which may NOT be labeled as a mistake, but I will see it as one:

In SS/PS, Snape hears Harry's heavy breathing under the invisibility cloak. We have learned that his invisibility cloak is impenetrable... this could be argued as not being a mistake, but I think it was.

I have one which may NOT be labeled as a mistake, but I will see it as one:

In SS/PS, Snape hears Harry's heavy breathing under the invisibility cloak. We have learned that his invisibility cloak is impenetrable... this could be argued as not being a mistake, but I think it was.

I don't think it is; I always took it as the cloak was visually impenetrable, but if Harry had bumped into someone or been overheard, he'd have been exposed.

I have one which may NOT be labeled as a mistake, but I will see it as one:

In SS/PS, Snape hears Harry's heavy breathing under the invisibility cloak. We have learned that his invisibility cloak is impenetrable... this could be argued as not being a mistake, but I think it was.

Notice in the first post:

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This a thread for spotting mistakes within the movies themselves, not mistakes made from the books to the movies! Because even movies can make them.

I just watched OotP again - in the first time Harry has a nightmare about the Ministry of Magic he is shown thrashing in the bed, he is wearing a blue horizontal striped jersey top, then the corridor is shown, and when they come back to Harry, he is wearing a blue-grey henley top. In the next dream sequence, when Arthur is attacked by Nagini, Harry is wearing the blue henley top again. Perhaps they didn't get enough footage the first time, and thought no one would notice if they took some footage from the second time.

Also - the Hogwarts express is definitely a different train than is used in the previous films. This one is dark red and looks much older.

This is more of a coincidence than a mistake I guess, but I'll say it anyway. In GoF, during the scene where Dumbledore talks to Moody and McGonagall in his office, you can clearly see the symbol of the Deathly Hallows sitting on a shelf. It's made out of those little silver instruments he has. Of course, this was almost two years before DH was released when they made the movie, and no one knew what on Earth that could mean, but it's interesting nonetheless that it should appear in Dumbledore's office, of all people. Maybe Rowling told Newell something...?